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Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

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Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#441

Post by aap_ »

oconnor663 wrote: post #439
Singletoned wrote: post #437

> Technical literacy in the broader population can be approximated with the Thanksgiving test: what sort of questions do you get at Thanksgiving? That's the ambient level of literacy. I didn't understand this one (perhaps due to not being American). Can someone explain it please?

Thanksgiving is a holiday where many people have a big family meal. If you have family members who you usually only see once a year, there's a good chance that day is Thanksgiving. So that's when a lot of people tend to field questions from people who 1) care about them enough to ask how their new job is going but 2) have no idea what they really do at work.

I thought they meant that they would ask you to fix their computer.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#442

Post by ccmonnett »

Kluny wrote: post #363

> Charge more. Charge more still. Go on. I find this advice unhelpful. In the past, when I was making $23/hour as a web developer, people would occasionally ask to hire me for freelance work. I've given various answers, from $30 to $100, and haven't had any takers yet. The only freelance work I've actually done so far was when I said, "what do you think it's worth?" and my friend said, "I dunno, 60?" It was for about…

I think this piece of advice is extremely relevant for those selling B2B software/products which comes in bigger 'chunks' than your labor which can be sold by the hour.

The gist is that while you (as the average B2B startup) can estimate how valuable your product is to your average customer, you will most likely vastly underestimate the cost of replacement for such a system. In other words, if your sales pitch goes well and they like the product but think to themselves "How much would it cost us to build this ourselves?" you will underestimate this cost from the outside. This is because the cost of replacement is a reasonably good proxy for a price ceiling and by being aware of it you can get a much higher average selling price.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#443

Post by emodendroket »

badpun wrote: post #436
emodendroket wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about that. Surely expertise can make up for "energy and enthusiasm" (even after decades nobody knows everything about programming). It sounds a little like a post hoc justification of age discrimination.

In my impression, people who have been coding for 5 years already have plenty of experience, esp. if they are enthusiastic about learning. They may not be team lead material yet, but they should make a fine individual contributor.

I don't mean to deny this, but to say that they know all there is to know and will never get better... I don't think so.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#444

Post by blurbleblurble »

pdfernhout wrote: post #306
blurbleblurble wrote: post #73

> Companies find it incredibly hard to reliably staff positions with hard-working generalists who operate autonomously and have high risk tolerances. This is not the modal employee, including at places which are justifiably proud of the skill/diligence/etc of their employees. This one. Every job I see when I go looking is 40+ hrs a week, likely with plenty of idle time and projects I don't believe in. Part of this is…

Some resources you may find of interest: * "Have Fun at Work" by William L. Livingston -- Livingston provide examples of how organizations are often incapable of hiring the people who might help them most. * "The Murdering of My Years: Artists and Activists Making Ends Meet" by Mickey Z. -- This book is more in the category of seeing how bad so many creative people have it (until perhaps we get a basic income some da…

This is great, than you! And yes, I'm pretty much doing this now. I live with musicians who hustle very hard. I'm a musician too. I'm familiar with the life. I'm very happy and fulfilled in so many ways, just exhausted.

I think one of my best bets right now is to lean hard into teaching, especially piano teaching. I have one committed student and a few more excited but broke students who take lessons from time to time. Is very rewarding and there is lots of mutual respect.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#446

Post by hammock »

codingdave wrote: post #49
drewrv wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been spending a lot of time lately wondering if people who treat colleges and universities as though their job is worker training are confused, or if I'm naive in believing colleges and universities exist to expand human knowledge through research and education. I suspect the answer is that our culture is confused, we want people who are smart and well rounded to also be useful. And the ugly side of it is, we wa…

> One would never refer to law school or medical school as "vocational". Sure you would. They are 100% vocational schools. Their cost, acceptance rates, time commitment, and difficulty level may be higher than other vocational schools, but that doesn't change what they are -- 100% focused on giving you the knowledge and skills to do a specific job.

They are actually called "professional" schools, but yeah it's a euphemism that means the same thing.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#447

Post by maccard »

rhizome wrote: post #124
Danihan wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well then where are all the "vocational" CS programs at universities?

Medical and Law schools are postgraduate.

In some places. In Ireland, law is a normal undergraduate degree with some extra vocational training after you graduate. Medicine is an undergraduate (5 year) programme, during which quite a lot is vocational - students spend multiple months in hospitals during that period, and when they graduate they are still considered as training.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#448

Post by nitelord »

_wp3r wrote: post #424
blurbleblurble wrote: post #73

> Companies find it incredibly hard to reliably staff positions with hard-working generalists who operate autonomously and have high risk tolerances. This is not the modal employee, including at places which are justifiably proud of the skill/diligence/etc of their employees. This one. Every job I see when I go looking is 40+ hrs a week, likely with plenty of idle time and projects I don't believe in. Part of this is…

It would rarely be effective to market yourself as a generalist on paper. If you have 3 primary skill sets you should have 3 focused resumes. If you want a position that requires a generalist, the only/best fit would be founder. In almost all other circumstances, companies hire for a problem and not general optimizations. Even if they need a generalist. I would posit that you have a marketing problem and not a skills…

This is an interesting idea that I'll have to try.

I have the 3 primary skillset problem you describe and have a decade of "founder" experience. I thought the breadth of experience and technologies would be impressive, but I think it just confuses most employers. It seems counter-intuitive to intentionally not mention your skills on your resume, and admittedly a little ego-deflating.. but this actually makes sense.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#450

Post by zaptheimpaler »

purplezooey wrote: post #445

"collapse of a cartel organized against the interests of workers" -- to what is this referring?

Agreements not to negotiate past a certain amount and not compete too hard for talent, etc. amongst tech companies to reduce wages. Link:

https://pando.com/2014/03/22/revealed-apple-and-googles-wage...

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